The only problem is that you don’t actually need anything that Amazon sells (which is everything by the way). Let’s just say you would rather have that $500 in cash because you have to pay your rent or some other bill.

Amazon won’t (obviously) exchange the card for you with cash. And if you were to buy something and then return it, they could only credit your account, which gets you nowhere.

You can’t ask your friend (or whoever that someone was that gave you the Amazon gift card) to take the card back and give you cash instead.

So what can you do?

What’s the Best Way to Exchange Amazon Gift Cards for Cash?

Well, I don’t think there is one “best’ way.

It all depends on your situation, how much the GC is worth, how fast you need the cash, etc.

That said, there are a few ways you can get cash for your unwanted Amazon GC, or any other kind of gift cards for that matter.

Here are a few options:

1. Use Reddit

Reddit actually has a dedicated subreddit for gift card exchanges where you can trad unwanted gift cards for cash (PayPal mainly) or other gift cards.

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Try Swagbucks, the famous rewards program that pays you for watching videos, taking surveys, shopping and more.

On this subreddit people normally barter for tangible goods rather than gift cards and gift certificate codes. But you may be able to find someone who will be willing to pay cash for your Amazon gift card.

2. Buy Stuff for Friends/family and Get Cash in Exchange

Ask your other friends or family members if they need stuff from Amazon. If they do, buy it for them and have them give you the equivalent amount in cash.

And if you don’t have a friend or family member who needs $500 worth of stuff, perhaps you could find a few people who may each need $50-$100 worth of stuff.

3. Sell a $500 Amazon Gift Card for $520 on eBay!

Not only you can sell your Amazon GC, but apparently you can sell it for more than its face value!

So I looked into it (here is a great discussion about it on Amazon Community Forum,) and from what I have gathered there may be a few reasons for why people pay more than the face value.

One theory is that people from other countries buy them and take advantage of the currency conversion somehow. So for them it actually is a win.

Another one is that the buyers are using cashback sites to shop on eBay and sometimes the cashback sites have promotions where they can earn way more cashback than the few extra dollars they paid for the GC.

And if you are not sure about that, you can always sell the GC for its face value or a few dollars lower. I looked on eBay and a lot of gift cards, including Amazon’s do sell for 100% face value or near it.

4. Sell It on Craigslist

You may have to sell it for a little less than its value, but that’s probably one of the fastest ways to get cash in your hand.

You could sell a $500 Amazon gift card for $450 or $430 perhaps.

If not, and if you don’t mind, lower the asking price.

5. Ask Amazon for Cash

I know this sounds like a crazy idea, but Amazon has a fantastic customer support and they are famous for it. You just may get lucky.

It won’t really cost you but a few minutes of your time to contact Amazon support and ask them. The worst that happens is that they will say no.

6. Sell on Gift Card Reseller Sites

This is another option. It’s not the fastest one, nor will it get you the most cash, but it works.

8. Use CoinStar

Coinstar has kiosks all over the country where you can get cash for electronics as well as gift cards.

Simply find a kiosk using their kiosk location finder, take your Amazon GC and insert it into the machine. See how much it pays for it, and if you accept it, get your cash instantly.

Obviously this won’t work with Amazon gift certificate (the ones you get the code for online). You have to have an actual physical gift card to insert into the CoinStar machine.

9. Buy Grocery & Pay Yourself in Cash

Most of us buy groceries a few times a week. But you can buy some of that stuff on Amazon now.

If you need the cash in a week or so, instead of buying your grocery from the store next week and paying with cash from your next paycheck, buy the grocery on Amazon now with the card and then pay yourself the equivalent amount in cash when you get your paycheck.

Alternative Options

Here are a few other options for cases where you don’t need cash, but you also don’t want the gift card.

10. Use Purse

This site was made exclusively for the purpose of allowing people to buy and sell Amazon gift cards for Bitcoin.

Bitcoin owners create a wishlist of items they want from Amazon, then people with unwanted gift cards purchase their order in exchange for bitcoin.

It is actually a very safe program. They use escrow to make sure both you and the buyer get your intended items. You get your bitcoin(s) and the buyer gets his/her amazon products.

11. Shop with Amazon Payments

If what you need is not cash but another item that is not sold on Amazon.com, you can actually use your gift card balance to shop on other sites that accept Amazon Payments.

Discussion

Timsays

If you know how to sell on eBay, you can actually buy something on Amazon that sells well on eBay, using your card. Then sell it on eBay and get cash for it. You can potentially get more for a product on eBay than what it sells for on Amazon. Might be time consuming BUT you can get more cash, eventually. And if you know what you’re doing, you can actually list your product on eBay BEFORE you buy it, and only buy when it sells, and actually have it shipped directly to your customer from Amazon directly. Then you get your cash’ worth on Paypal directly from eBay.

Beware trying to sell gift cards on eBay, at least electronic gift certificate codes. I sold one worth $100, collected payment via PayPal from a eBay and PayPal verified buyer then emailed the code. I kept proof that I had delivered the code and that it was valid. The buyer then reversed the payment with their bank, and PayPal withdrew the payment from my account. The buyer didn\\\’t even provide a reason. PayPal wouldn\\\’t cover the transaction despite fraud as they said it isn\\\’t covered by their seller protection policy. I\\\’m out $100 and as a bonus, eBay still wants to be paid for the sellers fees for selling the item – they refuse to refund the charges. So I owe the
eBay money after they allowed the buyer to rip me off!

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